William Ennis Thomson
William Ennis Thomson is an American music educator at the collegiate level, music theorist, composer, former Music School Dean and professor at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California from 1980 to 1992. His interest in research centers around the cognitive and perceptual foundation of music, insight for which is found in his 2006 article, "Pitch Frames as Melodic Archetypes", Empirical Musicology Review, 1.2, 1–18.
Thomson has served the faculties of SUNY Buffalo ; University of Arizona ; Case Western Reserve University ; Indiana University School of Music ; University of Hawaii Scholar in Residence ; Sul Ross State University, and Ford Foundation composer in residence.
He chaired the ETS Advanced Placement in Music Test Committee ; served as music panel member and examiner for the National Endowment for the Arts ; fellow and policy committee member of the Ford Foundation; served as a key participant in the Contemporary Music Project ; Board member of the Buffalo Philharmonic ; taught and composed works for wind band, orchestra, chorus ; and various chamber music media. Thomson also served in the Armed Forces: U.S. Navy.
Collegiate education
Thomson was born in Fort Worth. He earned two degrees from the University of North Texas: Bachelor of Music, 1948, and a Master of Music 1949. He also earned a PhD in Music Theory and Philosophy in 1952 from Indiana University, Bloomington. While at North Texas, Thomson was a member of the inaugural Laboratory Dance Band - the forerunner of the One O'Clock Lab Band - during the launch year of the first college degree in jazz offered in the world. At North Texas, he crossed paths with:- Wilfred Bain, who, as dean of the School of Music, collaborated with Gene Hall to create the country's first jazz degree program in his final year and Gene Hall's first year before moving on to Indiana University where he rapidly built another major school of music; Bain, essentially pioneered a new post-war large-scale model for higher music education by creating and integrating two comprehensive music schools within full liberal arts universities
- William F. Lee III, also a member of the first Lab Band at North Texas, who, later became a pioneering dean at a major music school, the University of Miami School of Music
Compositions
- Viola Sonata
- String Quartet
- Western Star, for 3 readers, chorus, piano †
- Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, Alpine, Texas
- Clarinet Sonata
- Permutations, for band
- Desert Seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter for mixed chorus
- Transformations, for orchestra
- Theme
- Dance
- Nocturne
- March
- Misterioso
- Scherzo
- Velvet Shoes, for women's chorus
- Desert Seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, for mixed chorus
- The Two Marys, for mixed chorus
- Fantasia and Dance, for clarinet and piano
- Praise ye the Lord, vocal quartet for SATB, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Publications and presentations
- "A Clarification of the Tonality Concept", Indiana University
- Materials and Structure of Music, Vols. I & II, William B. Christ, Richard Peter Delone, Vernon Lee Kliewer, Lewis Eugene Rowell, William Ennis Thomson, Prentice-Hall, 2nd ed., 3rd ed.
- Workbooks I and II, Materials and Structure of Music, William B. Christ, Richard Peter Delone, Vernon Lee Kliewer, Lewis Eugene Rowell, William Ennis Thomson, Prentice-Hall, 2nd ed., 3rd ed.
- Introduction to Music Reading, Wadsworth Publishing Co., Second Edition,
- The Hawaii Music Curriculum Project: The Project Design, College of Education, University of Hawaii
- The Total Theory Program, paper given at the conference on Curriculum and Supervision in Music Education, Indiana University
- The World of Sound and How We Hear It, TV presentation for Indiana University Television station, Bloomington
- Music Analysis as a Search for Universals, paper presented at the Conference, Ann Arbor
- Hindemith's Contribution to Music Theory, Journal of Music Theory
- Introduction to Music Reading: Concepts & Applications, Wadsworth Publishing
- Review of Bence Szabolcsi's "A History of Melody", '
- New Math, New Science, New Music, Music Educators Journal, 53,
- Introduction to Ear Training, by William E. Thomson and Richard Peter Delone, Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont, California
- The Problem of Music Analysis and Universals, Source Book III, 152–160
- Teaching Musical Concepts in Ensemble Performance, Music Educators Journal
- Advanced Music Reading, Wadsworth Publishing,
- Music History and Music Theory Courses in the University, paper presented at the Music Teachers National Convention, Cincinnati
- Introduction to Music as Structure – Composition. Elements and techniques of music, Addison-Wesley
- General Music: A Comprehensive Approach, Addison-Wesley Innovative Series
- Music For Listeners, Prentice-Hall, 1978.
- Report from Ojinaga: the 1968 AIM Festival, Notes From Eastman
- Informal Comments on the Development of Aural Perception in a Comprehensive Music Program, paper presented at the MENC Pre-Conference Workshop Session, Chicago
- Music Rides a Wave of Reform in Hawaii, Music Educators Journal, 56
- "Styles analysis: or the perils of pigeonholes", Journal of Music Theory, 14.2, 191–208
- Paris in the Twenties, paper presented at the Cleveland Institute of Music 50th anniversary party
- The Core Commitment in Theory and Literature for Tomorrow's Musician, Symposium, College Music Society, X
- Basic Musicianship, paper presented at the National Association of Schools of Music meeting
- New Challenges for the Independent Music School, paper
- "Education for the Professional", Dictionary of Modern Music, 197–200
- "Sound: Musical", Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th Ed.
- "Review of 'Sonic Design' by Robert Cogan and Pozzi Escot", Journal of Music Theory
- "Functional Ambiguity in Musical Structures", Music Perception, I, 3, 3–27
- "Review of Counterpoint in the Style of J.S. Bach, Thomas Benjamin", Journal of Music Theory, 31.2, 345–353
- Schoenberg's Error , University of Pennsylvania Press,
- Theodore Lipps, Consonance and Dissonance in Music, translated by William Ennis Thomson, Everett Books, San Marino, CA
- Tonality in Music: a General Theory, Everett Books San Marino, CA
- Review of Mary Lou Serafine's "Music as Cognition: the Development of Thought in Sound", Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 8–28
- , The Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 20–28
- Response to "Review of William Thomson's 'Schoenberg's Error'",
- Paul Desmond
- Vincent Anthony Guaraldi
- Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow
- James Andrew Rushing
- Elmer Snowden
- George Wettling
- Emergent Dissonance and the Resolution of a Paradox, Symposium, , 36, 114–137
- "Response to Michael Buchler's review of Tonality in Music", In Theory Only, XIII
- Wilfred C. Bain: A Reminiscence In Memoriam, Symposium, , 38, 1–5
- On Miles and the Modes, Symposium, , 38, 17–32
- Response to Murray Dineen's Review of "Tonality in Music", Music Theory Spectrum 23.2
- Those Strange Bedfellows, Politics and Music, Symposium,
- Deductions Concerning Inductions of Tonalty, Music Perception, Vol. 19, pp. 127–138, University of California Press, Berkeley, California
- Review of "The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching" and Learning by Richard Colwell & Carol Richardson, Music Perception, University of California Press, 20, No. 3, 341–350
- "On the tones of painting and the colors of music", Bulletin of Psychology and the Arts, 4, 24–27, published by the American Psychological Association
- "From Sounds to Music: the Contextualizations of Pitch", Music Perception, 21.3, 431–456
- "Response to David Temperley's Commentary", Empirical Musicology Review, I, 3, 182–184
- "Pitch Frames as Melodic Archetypes", Empirical Musicology Review, 1.2, 1–18
- Music in Colonial America, talk for the Jamestowne Society at TAIX restaurant, Los Angeles
- Fractured Musicology, paper given at College Music Society Convention, San Antonio, Texas
- Metamusic Versus the Sound of Music: a Critique of Serialism, foreword by David Butler, Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University, Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY
- Serialist Claims Versus Sonic Reality, Empirical Musicology Review'', V-2
Honors and awards
- 1948 - 1st Place, Young Composers, National Federation of Music Clubs for the composition, Sonata for Violin and Piano - student of George Ellers Morey, PhD of North Texas
- 1971 - Outstanding Teacher Award, Case Western Reserve University
- 1975 - Outstanding Teacher Award, University of Arizona
- 1992 - Outstanding Academic Book,, , American Library Association
- 2009 - Alumni Appreciation Award, University of North Texas College of Music. According to the UNT Composition Department, the award for Dr. Thomson was particularly deserved because he is continuing a broad and prolific career in music that spans beyond that of a composer.
Military service
Growing up
In his younger days, Thomson learned to play french horn and trumpet, both in the classical and jazz idioms. When Thomson was five, his father bought him a cornet, hoping to stave off his interest in the piano that his sister was studying. And from that age, Thomson's mother began driving him to TCU on Saturdays for lessons with Don Gillis. When Thomson was eight, Don recommended that - since the highest paid member of any symphony in this country, was the principal French horn player - perhaps he should switch to horn. So he did.The Gillis family lived in Polytechnic Heights, about four blocks from the Thomson family. The Gillis family attended Poly Baptist church, where the Thomson family were members. Don Gillis was very much involved in music at TCU.
Growing up, Thomson played French horn in Poly Baptist Church "orchestra", directed by Don Gillis. Don's sister, Eileen, played piano. The local postman, Mr. Snow, played baritone horn. A member of the Crystal Springs Ramblers, Kenneth Pitts, played violin. Thomson read the baritone part from the Broadman Hymnal, transposing it for horn.
Thomson attended Polytechnic High School, where he was involved in the band. Thomson became proficient at playing jazz solos on French horn with the Poly High School band. His high school band director was Perry Alton Sandifer, a trombonist, saxophonist, and clarinetist who, outside of school, performed in dance orchestras - one led by him bearing his name. Thomson graduated from Polytechnic High School in 1943.